Toujours Pur
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: A family of strangers isn't really a family at all, is it? / collection of dysfunctional Black moments.


**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: **

Written for the Tien Len Competition ; fanfiction terms competition "incest" ; and more HPFC things.

For Lizzie, my pirate and better half.

20 April 2014.

**Was she wrong to believe them both?**

* * *

**Toujours Pur**

[-]

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a great big house with a great big family and had great big dreams. She had diamonds in her eyes and galaxies woven into her midnight hair. Her mother told her that the world was hers, and her father said she was the brightest star in the sky.

(Was she wrong to believe them both?)

x

Little girls in the House of Black were to be seen and not heard, though most guests who came a-calling certainly noticed Arcturus II's second eldest daughter. She was wide-eyed and naive, a curious little thing who loved to listen to the tales of grandeur her father's friends spun at the dinner table.

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Cedrella," Lord Malfoy said, eyes hinting at an adventure she would soon be privy to.

"Me!" she interrupted. "That's my name!"

"Cedrella, hush darling," her mother chided, but she indulged her daughter and did not admonish her atrocious dinner manners any further. Lysandra Black dabbed at her lipstick with a cloth napkin and encouraged Lord Malfoy to continue on with his story.

"She was small and feisty, a force to be reckoned with. But that was all right, for a pirate-in-training could be nothing less than fierce and brave . . . . "

She loved the endless freedom and the reckless courage of the pirates Lord Malfoy spoke about. That night, Cedrella vowed to herself that she would become the best – or the worst, depending on if you worked for the Crown or not – in the whole entire world.

x

Over the years, it became clear to everyone that her sisters were everything her parents wanted while Cedrella was a continuous disappointment and slander to the Black family name.

"Why must you be so loud?" Callidora complained, a pale dainty hand pressed to her temple. "You know I don't like it when you and Father argue about such trivial things like the weather."

Cedrella would roll her stormy grey eyes in response. "Would you rather me run the risk of being such a bore like yourself?" she scoffed. "No, I don't think so."

Charis, the youngest of the three, would then take that moment to pipe in and side with Callidora. "Oh, but Ella, you and Father squabble over every little thing. Would it hurt to agree with him for once?"

She sighed, for it seemed that Father wasn't the only one in her family she constantly quarrelled with. "I can't promise you anything," Cedrella said slowly and a bit reluctantly. "You know how patience is not one of my virtues. But I shall try my best to have a better attitude because I love you too ever so dearly."

The sisters smiled stiffly at each other and pretended to get along for a few minutes. The facade didn't last for much more than an hour.

x

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" her mother asked one snowy winter night as the family sat together in the parlour. It was the first time in years that the five Black family members were coexisting in the same place, and Cedrella found that she considered these people surrounding her to be strangers instead of family members.

"A pirate," she answered promptly.

Her sisters shot her dirty looks and her father let out a derisive snort after he had taken a drag from his pipe.

"Be serious," Lysandra said, not even bothering to look at her daughter. "I don't have time for your foolishness anymore, Cedrella."

Cedrella wished she had more impressive things to say to her family, but even the weather seemed to disappoint them these days.

x

She was sixteen when she met him on the docks. He was a lovely lad, charming and ruggedly handsome, straight from the seas with tales of a life she could only dream about. He took her to a local pub and whispered to her about lands far, far away. She listened, starry-eyed and intrigued, and it was obvious to anyone who dared to look that she was his and he was hers.

Septimus Weasley wasn't a pirate, much to her dismay, but he might as well have been the way he managed to steal her heart. His gold hoop earring and tousled ginger hair hinted at a future Cedrella desperately wanted. He grinned up at her, his freckles flashing impishly, and she pledged her life to him, then and there.

_Blood traitor,_ the WANTED posters around town warned her about this strange and wonderful Septimus Weasley.

(She knew he had looked familiar but it was too late to reverse the marriage vows. Not that she wanted to, anyway.)

x

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in a beautiful house with a beautiful family and had beautiful dreams. She had diamonds splashed upon her cheeks and carried the universe on her shoulders. Her mother told her that she didn't belong in this world, and her father said that she had no place amongst the stars in the black sky. This resulted in screaming and fighting and the fragile house of cards came tumbling down, but in the end, she was scratched off the family tree and was never to be mentioned again.

(Cedrella who?)

[-]


End file.
